Five anti-war protesters who were found not guilty this week of criminally damaging a US military aircraft at Shannon airport said yesterday the verdict should "send a message" to the governments in Dublin, London and Washington.
On Tuesday, a jury of five men and seven women at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court reached a unanimous decision on day 12 of the trial, which took place after two previous trials had collapsed.
The five - Ciaron O'Reilly (46), Nuin Dunlop (34), Damian Moran (26), Karen Fallon (35), and Deirdre Clancy (36) - said "the conscience of the community" had spoken.
Ms Clancy said the verdict probably reflected public opinion on the war in Iraq. "I want to salute the jury. They made a strong statement, a statement I hope will be heard . . . These were ordinary Irish people. They had no agenda." She added that the jury understood that the five were not "the lunatic fringe".
Mr O'Reilly said the verdict ought to send a message to the Government over its "complicity" in the Iraq war and called on the refuelling of US military aircraft at Shannon to cease immediately. "Can they now ignore a group who have been selected at random from the public? If they do ignore them, our response will be non-violent action to the deepening Irish complicity in the war."
This might include non-violent action to force the closure of Shannon airport, he suggested.
A spokeswoman for the US embassy said it was "very disappointed" with the verdict and would "discuss the implications of the case with Irish government officials once we have more information".